No11 Brasserie & Boutique Hotel & Intimate Wedding Venue — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

My partner and I booked a Georgian Suite for our first night out together, and my first night in Edinburgh (American). We arrived just before our 3:00 check-in and talked to a gentleman at the front desk, who helped check us in. The first thing we were told was that our room had had a plumbing issue that was reportedly "fixed" by a joiner earlier that day. The gentleman told us his name, and said specifically we could come to him if there were any issues.

We went up the stairs to our room, only to find the door wide open, and a cleaning lady tidying the room. (This was 15 minutes after our check in). I asked her how much longer she would be, and she told us it would be half an hour. When I came back downstairs to ask the gentleman for help, he told us, "I work in the restaurant, I don't know what to do." He had to scramble to find a lady to help us, who checked on the status and repeated that we had to wait 30 minutes for our room. I had to ask what we could do with our bags and ourselves in the meantime, and was told we could put them in the room. and that we could go walk around. (Both my partner and I were ready to relax after spending the whole day traveling and walking).

When we dropped our bags, we were disappointed to see that our room looked nothing like the pictures we had seen. We had been promised a four-poster king sized bed, with a clawfoot tub and double shower. Instead, we got a queen bed in a sparsely decorated room, a small claw-foot tub pushed up against a wall and a single shower. Downstairs I enquired to ensure that we were actually put in the suite we had paid for, and they told us that the one in the pictures was occupied, but that this was another, 'newer' Georgian Suite. We were both very disappointed.

After returning 40 minutes later, just to be safe, our room was indeed ready. The first thing we did was attempt to flush the toilet, which didn't work at all. We grabbed our bags and went down to the front desk, and let the same woman who had helped us know that we had no functional toilet in our room. (She was now in street clothes, clearly at the end of her shift with no clear replacement).

She hurriedly showed us two rooms, and we ended up staying in #14, which was sold to us as a "mini-suit." We were extremely disheartened that our first night away together was not going to be in the room we had envisioned. I had also paid for rose petals to surprise my partner, which we never got to enjoy due to our room move. (I was never refunded for that either).

When we moved, I asked if our rate would we be reduced, and I was told "we will see." The woman came back half an hour later and told me that she had taken £35 off our stay and told us to join them for a free breakfast. (We were not given instructions on how to claim our breakfast, nor would we have used it, since we had made other arrangements already). My partner described the service as "incompetent, verging on rude."

As someone who has worked in the hotel industry myself, I was very disappointed by the service standards at No. 11. I do not think this staff understands that there are no second chances or redos on these experiences. People come and travel for special occasions (birthdays, honeymoons, an anniversary) and once the moment is spoiled, the staff have to PROACTIVELY go above and beyond to revive the guest experience. Our special stay, my first night with my partner, was diminished by our choice of hotel, and if I could take it back and try somewhere else, I would. In my opinion, we were not even given the bare minimum treatment to apologize for things going wrong.

We understand it was a busy opening weekend. We understand that things like plumbing are mostly out of staff control. But every staff member has the power to make up for unforeseen complications and to make a guest's stay special. That unfortunately, was not our experience with No. 11. I wish our story was different.

(I would be remiss if I didn't say that one person, Joe in the bar/restaurant, was excellent and positive. The one bright star in our...

Horrible service — I reached out immediately after booking my reservation to update the payment info as I noticed the wrong card had been used somehow (maybe auto fill from Google) and could not get in touch with the hotel. I sent follow ups asking how to update the info and received no replies until the day I flew into Edinburgh, at which point I got an email letting me know my reservation was cancelled. I replied to try to get an answer and was received rude and curt replies from the manager Deepak. I repeatedly asked him to please forward the emails they allegedly sent asking for updated payment / replying to me and got no answer, was simply told “your reservation is cancelled there’s no point in coming”. I went to the hotel in person to sort out what happened and unfortunately had to continue to deal with Deepak. If his conduct is any indication to what the rest of the staff is like, I can see why there are reviews saying the staff is unfriendly.

It seems beautiful enough in the lobby and is located in a quiet spot but it’s definitely not a 4 star hotel by any means and not worth the price they’re asking for (especially considering there isn’t even an elevator! you’ll have to carry any luggage up the stairs). It seems like unless you have a suite, the rooms are quite small and sometimes have an ant problem? So perhaps for the best I will not be staying here.

On a last note, I understand that this was a technological communication issue. I would have appreciated an apology (not one 10 minutes in) and a simple “I don’t know what happened but we will definitely look into this, and I’m so sorry but I hope you can understand we had to release the reservation.” Instead, Deepak doubled down on saying “WE did everything RIGHT! WE did NOTHING WRONG!” — shouldn’t a hotel manager be more concerned that emails don’t seem to be sending? He said I should look into it on my end instead because everything is working for them. But it’s not! The lack of empathy really just left a bitter taste in my mouth. I’m not sure if it was a tone issue or a language/cultural barrier (he said I was “laughing at this apology” when I nervously laughed in shock in response to him finally saying “I’m sorry” after telling me for 10 minutes straight they’d tried to contact me so that’s that. I had to keep being like yes! I know! I’m saying I didn’t receive any of these emails (and could not receive a call due to being in the U.S. / was flying when he called) — he simply didn’t care.

I’ve never experienced such unprofessionalism and a lack of hospitality. It’s inevitable that things will go wrong sometimes— I would recommend treating your guests with more respect...

I was really excited about trying out a new restaurant and was looking forward to a really high calibre of food at this hotel. However, the entire experience was, overall, highly underwhelming.

The staff were friendly enough but failed to make the experience any more enjoyable. The restaurant itself, is very small. It feels like sitting in someone's lounge for dinner. The music was terrible and destroyed any atmosphere that could have been created. It was decorated very darkly and made the whole experience quite cold and distant.Tables were very close together (despite there not being many) and it was hard to speak without the next table being able to hear. There were only two people waiting on tables which was fine the majority of the time but towards the end, we waited 20 minutes before we managed to ask for the bill.

We had a pre paid voucher allowing as three courses, tea or coffee with truffles for 2. There was a very small menu. Out of the menu, one was not on offer as they had already ran out before peak dinner time.

My starter was okay. I had the "hot salmon" which wasn't labelled as what it should have been: "salmon mayo". My friend had the soup which seriously lacked seasoning, although contained a very long blonde hair.

The main course was miles better. My friend had the steak at a £5 supplement which was lovely tender meat. However, the chips were undercooked and very salty. The salad was pointless.

I had the sea bass with creme fraiche which was lovely but lacked substance in the way of pasta or potatoes. I also received no extra plate to place my mussels in.

Dessert was bittersweet. My friend was unable to have any of the listed desserts due to an allergy but the kitchen kindly offered a fresh fruit salad. It was, however, very small and considering the money and inconvenience we spent, it wasn't worth it.

I had the white chocolate creme brule with shortbread and raspberries. However, on arrival, the raspberries were actually a rhubarb compote. It was delicious nonetheless although barely tasted of white chocolate.

Tea and coffee was standard - nothing elaborate, however, "truffles" was a gross overstatement. We received one each.... it was delicious but a second one would...